Facebook Live adds Subscribe Button to compete with Periscope

Facebook recently introduced a new live video feature available to public figures such as celebrities and journalists. Named “Facebook Live”, it now has a new subscribe button in order to encourage future engagements on the platform.

Kevin Hart, Donald Trump, and Ian Somerhalder have had live audiences which count over 200,000 viewers. Vin Diesel managed an astonishing audience of over 1 million people.

The new subscription option ensures that fans are notified, and don’t face missing out when their favourite celebrities or public figures are live on the platform.

The latest social media trends are evolving and merging into one. Live real-time updates, and the ever-increasing popularity of video have come together in live video streaming. Video is largely more popular now thanks to faster and more readily available internet plans on mobile devices.

More people are tending to live and update the world in the moment, and love to take part on global and local events online. Why watch something that’s happened if you can watch something happening right now? Facebook is looking to ride on this popularity with Facebook Live.

This new button appears in the top right-hand corner of live or past videos, allowing Facebook users to be notified when the chosen broadcaster go live on Facebook once again. As Facebook explains on its blog:

Insights and examples
Live is like having a television studio in your pocket, and since launch, we’ve been inspired by all the ways that Live has been used around the world. More than 60% of broadcasters are from countries outside the US, with Brazil, Taiwan and Italy among the top places for Live broadcasters.

Facebook Live was launched back in August as Facebook’s answer to Periscope and Meerkat – with Periscope being owned by Twitter, and clearly warrants competing with. However, Facebook Live only currently allows public figures with verified profiles to live stream videos currently. To do this, they need to have access to the Mentions app, which is currently only available on iOS devices.

No doubt that in the future, Facebook pages and marketers will open up to more people who can reap the benefits of live video, as many brands already are over on Periscope. Which platform is the best is still yet to be seen, as the battle is still relatively uneven when considering audiences and features.

One big plus is that videos remain on Facebook indefinitely after they have ended – which is not something all streaming networks do at the present moment.

Facebook has recently turned up the heat on notifications, utilising its own “Notify” app in order to take over your operating system on your phone. Facebook desperately wants you to interact with the internet at large through Facebook itself – but we are yet to see how successful this will remain. When we have companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon all vying for our online attention, it’s anyone’s game.

For more information on the new notifications and Facebook Live, watch the embedded video below.

Musicians, athletes, actors, politicians, and other influencers have taken fans behind-the-scenes using Live on…